WNYT.com

Union Wins Cleary Cup & Clinches #1 Seed in ECAC

Posted at: 02/23/2014 8:14 PM
By: Union Athletics & WNYT Sports

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- There will be no sharing of the Cleary Cup.

Union captured the ECAC Hockey regular season title outright Saturday night with an impressive 6-2 win over St. Lawrence, and in the process, clinched the top seed for the ECAC Hockey Championship. The Dutchmen have now won 10 straight home games -- the second longest active streak in the NCAA Division I ranks.

Daniel Carr scored twice and finished with three points while classmate Mat Bodie added a pair of assists on Senior Night before the seventh sellout of the season at Messa Rink.

Sebastien Gingras opened scoring with a power play goal at 16:03, launching a shot from the left point through a maze of traffic in front of the net. Just 22 seconds later at 16:25, Nick Cruice skated down the left side and finished a shot off a centering pass from Daniel Ciampini, who saw his goal-scoring streak end at six games.

St. Lawrence (12-16-4/6-10-4) battled back in the second period, and finished with a 9-8 edge in shots. Union made the most of its shots adding three more goals in the period. Carr scored twice in a span of 2:06 -- his first coming on a slapshot from the right circle at 14:25, followed by a breakaway goal at 16:31 that was set up on a 40-foot pass from Bodie.

The Saints broke through with a goal from Alex Hagen at 5:49 of the third period, ending goaltender Colin Stevens's shutout streak at 141:04. Eli Lichtenwald answered at 8:52 when Matt Wilkins drew the defense along the right boards and dumped a pass to Lichtenwald in the slot.

SLU's Gunnar Hughes scored his 16th goal of the season at 10:53 of the third to make it a 6-2 final.

Union travels to Yale next Friday (Feb. 28) on the closing weekend of regular season play.